La Casa Mia (my house)
Sunday, May 13th, 2012
As I previously explained, a house (in Italian) really translates into home rather than a physical structure “houseâ€. So I live at via Osoni 30 on the 2nd floor – equivalent to the 3rd floor in the U.S. The school is also on the second floor so I get a fair amount of exercise just going up and down stairs. The apartment is really a rather generous size for Italy. It has a living room all to itself rather than a common room that combines the functions of living room, dining room and kitchen. There is a separate small dining room and a TINY kitchen. Then there are three rather generously sized bedrooms as well as a sunroom. Rather luxurious for Italy. There is a balcony which has a lot of plants because Cesarini loves gardening in every form. When you add the stendino (the clothes drying rack) there’s hardly any room left on the balcony. Very few people have a clothes dryer, air drying is the rule rather than the exception. Really the only thing that I wish were different is that there is no internet in the house so rather than wi-fi I had to buy the chiaveta to access the internet through the cellular network.
-
- The breakfast/dining room with the balcony.
-
- The tiny kitchen – the refrigerator is out of the photo on the right but other than that you can see just about everything
-
- The living room – there is also another couch on the other side of the room and a reasonably large flat screen TV in the corner
-
- The sun room
-
- The hallway with doors to the living room at the end
-
- The thirds bedroom – quite large and unused other than for storage
-
- The bathroom
-
- The balcony – there is a park right across the street which makes for a nice view and a quiet environment
-
- The stairs – you can just barely see the door to the building at the bottom
The lady of the house, Cesarina, is a real sweetie although a little tight with money. That’s natural since she is retired and has a passion for music. She saves money to to feed her music habit which see indulges 2 or three times a week. Â She has a lot of interests other than music. There are plants on almost every window ledge and the balcony has plants everywhere. There are books on a variety of subjects all over the house. We’ve developed a comfortable relationship. If we have a load of clothes in the washer and she is out of the house when they are done, I put them on the rack and bring them in when they are dry. She has repaired some socks of mine and a couple of pair of underwear as well.
-
- Cesarina
From the balcony you can see San Luca, which is one of the major landmarks of Bologna along with the twin towers.
-
- San Luca in the morning
-
- San Luca at night
May 13th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Looks like great digs in a great location! About balconies: From my experience staying with friends in italy, I’ve come to believe that balconies are meant for herbs, laundry and trash. Rather than sit on them, my friends always preferred to go into town and parks to enjoy the air. They thought I was a bit weird to want to sit on the balcony! Great post. Thanks for sharing.
May 15th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
I’m glad that you liked the posts, Dana. The balcony is a bit cramped but some apartments to have terraces that are described as “livable” meaning you can have a table and chairs for a nice lunch when the weather is nice. And yes, it is a terrific location.
Joe
May 14th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Hi Joe,
Your abode looks great! Superb ‘student housing’! 🙂
Note my new e-mail address (the old address was hacked into).
Ciao, dude,
Jamie
May 15th, 2012 at 10:29 pm
Yes, I feel fortunate to be in this location. I knew nothing about this neighborhood before so just another part of my education.
Joe